She's come home to find gifts of string lights. Or extension cords. Or money. All of it meant to help Arellano recover from a weekend vandalism that wrecked her front-yard Christmas display at her home at 2056 Spencer St.

But there's one thing few of the helpers have left: a name. And she's sorry for that. Because she wants to thank every one of them.

"Everyone's been so nice to me," Arellano said Friday through a tearful smile. "I don't have words to tell them how grateful I am. There are a lot of angels around me and around the world."

Arellano's home was among dozens to be featured this year in the Times-Call's holiday lights guide. It was the kind of display that drivers stopped to photograph: brilliantly lit animals, a Nativity scene, every patch of lawn seeming to hold another decoration.

But sometime late Sunday night or Monday morning, someone ruined it all. Decorations were stolen, scattered, or smashed; the animal figures were beheaded or crushed; a brilliantly-lit crucifix was tipped over.

Police have yet to find the vandals. But after the story was reported, one person after another made the same decision: it was time to lend a hand.

"It just broke my heart with everything going on in the world," said an Erie woman who declined to give her name as she set a small stone angel by Arellano's door Thursday. "I thought 'This is something I can address very easily.'"

"I just saw it in the paper and it made me so sad," said Lola Powell of Longmont, leaving some money Friday to help rebuild. "I thought it would be nice if people cared. I do enjoy it when people go all out like this."

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